on’t call it a comeback, because ADULT. haven’t been away. It’s been a while since the world heard any recordings from Detroit electropunk pioneers Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus, it’s true, but that’s because the restlessly creative duo have been busy with other projects: a film trilogy, a soundtrack and an epic home renovation.

“At the end of 2007,” explains Miller, “music was everything, and that didn’t satisfy our multi-disciplinary nature.” It’s easy to see why Miller and Kuperus decided to explore other aspects of their art, because their work has always pushed boundaries boundaries between genres, boundaries between disciplines, and boundaries between media. They’ve been married for 14 years, and artistic collaborators for longer than that. As well as music, their work encompasses photography, painting, a record label and, most notably of late, film.

Since the world last heard an ADULT. record 2008’s Let’s Feel Bad Together EP the duo have been exploring the audio/visual aspect of their work, creating a 113-minute trilogy of horror films called the Three Grace(s) triptych. The films were completed in late 2010, screened at the Distrital Film Festival in Mexico City and the CIMM Festival in Chicago, and the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Anthology Film Archives (they also found time to oversee a

17-month renovation on a 3,000 square foot historic commercial property in Detroit, following up the similar renovation they did on their own home in the mid-’00s).
It’s notable that the duo’s interest in audiovisual work grew out of the evolving visual aspect of ADULT. They collaborated on several music videos, which led them to experimenting with short films and 2012 sees them come full circle back to the studio: they have a double A-side single of cover versions due out November 6th and more new material in the pipeline. Still, Miller’s keen to note that this isn’t the only music they’ve been making. “We’ve always been recording music,” he says. “Our films have original soundtracks from start to finish: that’s a total of 1 hour and 51 minutes of music for the three films we have made in the last four years. And these soundtracks are recorded, they are just not released yet!”

At the same time, though, he’s happy to be back to focusing on putting out records as he explains, “What brought us back to music releases was the simple fact that we finally got our visual side and our audible sides balanced again.” And with everything in equilibrium again, we’ll be hearing a lot more of ADULT. in the near future.